


soothe all my worries and i'll soothe yours

by untakenbeepun



Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: M/M, anxious fluff, caleb worries about the future, i don't know how to tag things it's 1am give me a break, mild angst? does this count as angst?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 13:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21339331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/untakenbeepun/pseuds/untakenbeepun
Summary: After his empath abilities cause him problems at a party, Caleb begins to worry about the future, and Adam, and everything.
Relationships: Adam Hayes/Caleb Michaels
Comments: 7
Kudos: 46





	soothe all my worries and i'll soothe yours

Caleb had taken refuge on the back doorstep, his head resting against the cold brick wall, breath catching on the night air. Goosebumps pricked his skin. He should have found his sweater before coming outside, but he’d been too focused on making the jumble in his head just _go away. _There was a half-full red plastic cup sat by his side, but he’d given up drinking ten minutes into the party. He already felt halfway to hungover just by standing in a room full of hammered people, he didn’t need to add to his headache. He closed his eyes and tried to remember what Dr. Bright had said about breathing exercises, but breathing in and out wasn’t doing anything to help the sick feeling in his head. Instead, he pressed his fingers into his temples and squeezed his eyes shut tighter.

It went on like this until he registered the sound of the door opening behind him, and then something in his brain evened out, the sick feeling from before was muted slightly as a feeling of calm washed over him, tinged with just a tiny bit of sadness.

And then Adam was sitting down beside him. “Party no good, huh?”

“Nope. Too much noise. Sorry I dragged you all the way here.”

“You wanna go?”

“Yeah,” Caleb sighed, resigned. “Yeah, let’s go.”

The street was quiet. That sick feeling in Caleb’s head had come back in full force when he’d gone back inside to rescue his sweater, and so far the quiet walk home hadn’t done anything to abate it. 

They walked together in a steady silence, and Caleb focused on the feeling of Adam’s hand in his, their fingers linked together, on Adam’s familiar emotion, steady and calm with that slight edge of sadness, and on Adam’s shoulder, pressed against his. Adam was his centre, his touchstone. Adam made Caleb feel less like he was lost at sea, desperately treading water. 

After a few moments, when all the noise in his head and the sick hungover feeling finally began to drift away, Caleb gave a sigh.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“You don’t have to apologise,” Adam said.

“No, I do. I dragged you all the way out here. You don’t even like parties. I made you come with me, and I couldn’t hack it.”

Adam shrugged. “We always knew it was a possibility.”

“I know. I just—” Caleb sucked in a breath. “I just wanted to feel _normal, _for a night. Just to have one normal night, with a normal high school experience. Just one fucking night of normality.”

Adam squeezed his hand. Caleb squeezed back and then took another breath.

“I just — I worry that it’s always going to be like this, y’know? Like, college is supposed to be this big adventure, the best time of my life. But what if I end up just stuck in my dorm, not being able to go outside and _do _anything because I can’t handle all of the emotions? How will I even make it to class?”

“You’ll manage,” Adam said. “You’ve been coping a lot better than you think you have. One stupid party where everyone around you is drunk out of their minds is bound to mess with you a little bit.” 

“I don’t know how I’m going to cope without you around.”

Adam stilled next to him and Caleb felt his emotions shift. It was a confession he hadn’t meant to say aloud, hadn’t wanted to do anything to dampen Adam’s excitement about Yale. 

“You make everything better. You keep me calm. Sane,” Caleb explained. “I’m scared about what’ll happen… if you’re not around.”

There was a moment of silence. Adam just looked at him.

“Do you want to come back to mine?” Adam asked. “Mom and Dad aren’t home, we can order pizza and talk about this.”

Caleb sighed. “Yeah. That sounds good.”

* * *

Nights alone with Adam were Caleb’s favourite time.

Adam’s room was dim, only the bedside lamp casting a soft glow across the room. They were curled up on Adam’s bed, Adam tucked against Caleb’s chest. The pizza box lay forgotten on the floor. 

Caleb’s fingers traced Adam’s cheek, and, not for the first time, he found that fear pooling in his stomach. He’d been feeling it periodically since the incident with Damien, this overwhelming fear that Adam will be taken from him. That day kept replaying in his head, over and over. Damien’s voice telling Adam to move. Adam stuck in Damien’s spell, moving towards him. The rage that had taken over Caleb, all that anger in the room, the need to protect Adam.

The thought of losing him was just too awful to bear.

Adam shifted to look up at Caleb. “I don’t need to be an empath to hear you worrying.”

“Sorry. It’s just… all been weighing on me lately.”

“I know,” Adam said, softly. “You think it’s not been weighing on me too? College is scary. I’m scared about what it’ll be like when you’re not within arm’s reach, I’m scared about having bad days not having anyone around to help me through it, hell, even without superpowers navigating relationships through college is hard. I’m scared that you might meet someone way better than me and decide that I’m not good enough anymore.”

“That will _never _happen.” 

“It’s not out of the range of possibility.”

“I don’t think it’s _likely.” _

“But I still worry sometimes — anyway, that wasn’t my point,” Adam said. “The point is that no matter how far apart we are from each other, we’re in this together. Wherever you choose to go, I’m only a phone call away. And you can bet that I am going to come and visit you so much that it’ll be like we aren’t apart at all and you’ll be begging me to leave you alone.”

Caleb grinned. “Now, I know that’s never going to happen,” he said, brushing his forehead against Adam’s. “I want to be around you all the time. I love you, Adam, more than I can say.”

And then he felt it well up in Adam too, that love, huge and overwhelming. It made Caleb want to laugh.

If he could feel that every day of his life, he could face absolutely anything.

Adam pressed his face into Caleb’s chest. “I love you too.”

“Dork.”

“Meathead.”

And then they kissed until Caleb’s worries melted away into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at [bee-elzebub](https://bee-ezlebub.tumblr.com/) and on twitter at [@untakenbeepun](https://twitter.com/untakenbeepun)


End file.
